Obama: A modest poll ‘bump’

President Obama’s job approval rating has enjoyed a modest upward “bump” in the wake of a U.S. commando-style operation that killed Osama bin Laden, according to a new poll by the Washington Post and Pew Research Center.

The poll, taken Monday night, found that 56 percent of those surveyed approve the job performance of America’s 44th president. The figure is 9 percent higher than the 47 percent rating given Obama in a late April ABC News/Washington Post poll.

The “bump” does not compare to the surge in approval for President Bush after 9/11: W’s approval went from 51 percent to 86 percent. But it is slightly greater than the rise in Bush’s ratings after the capture of Iraq’s deposed President Saddam Hussein.

The Post/Pew survey found that 60 percent approve of Obama’s conduct of the Afghanistan war, with 69 percent giving a thumbs-up to the president’s handling of the war on terror.

By contrast, just 40 percent of those surveyed gave approval to Obama’s handling of the economy.

Obama has enjoyed a 10-point “bump,” up to 52 percent, in his approval rating among pivotal Independent voters.

Three-quarters of those surveyed agreed that President Obama deserves credit in the killing of Osama bin Laden. But Republicans are still reluctant to bestow praise on the 44th president.

Sixty-one percent of Republicans surveyed said Obama should get at least some credit for bin Laden’s demise, but just 17 percent agreed he deserves a “great deal” of credit: 81 percent of Republicans said Bush deserves at least some credit.

The poll interviewed 654 adult voters across the country and has a margin of error of plus/minus 4.5 percent.